18/01/2012 09:06 CEST - TENNIS

K. Clijsters - 18.01.2012

Q. What is your next trick with the fans? What are you going to ask them to do next?
KIM CLIJSTERS: Nothing. Nothing. Nothing scheduled.

Q. It was all fairly comfortable today.
KIM CLIJSTERS: Yeah. Like I said out there, I felt like in my first match I didn't really have that rhythm that I would have liked to have. So that's usually something that I try to look for in the beginning of the match.
Was hitting the ball well; felt that I could keep her under pressure. I didn't really let her play her game. From the beginning till the end, I did what I had to do well.

Q. Do you take much notice of rankings?
KIM CLIJSTERS: No.

Q. Doesn't mean anything?
KIM CLIJSTERS: No.

Q. Have you ever?
KIM CLIJSTERS: No. In the long term, you know, it doesn't make a difference. I mean, if you can be No. 1, I'm not going to sit here and say, no, it never did anything when I was No. 1. It's nice to be in that position.
But once you've been there, yeah, it's not something that I try to achieve.

Q. 2003 is a long time ago, when you first became No. 1, and did so without having won a major. What is your memory of it? Was it a burden?
KIM CLIJSTERS: No, not at all. It was definitely something I was very proud of. As a young girl growing up, you know, looking at the past No. 1s, was something that I always you know, those were definitely people and players that I admired. So for me to be in that position at such a young age was definitely something that made me very proud.
But obviously, you know, winning a Grand Slam is what kind of tops that feeling. So, yeah, like you said, if you can say, Look, I've been No. 1 in my career; that's good enough. It doesn't matter that much.

Q. A few players have followed in the same vein who haven't won a major. Have you spoken to Caroline, Jelena, about not winning a Grand Slam and being No. 1?
KIM CLIJSTERS: No, not really, because I don't think there's that much to say about it. Caroline is the girl who has been the most consistent player by far, injury free, played a lot of tournaments, but also did well in those tournaments.
She deserves to be up there. When she goes head to head against Serena or myself, you know, she has a losing record, but at the end of the day when you become No. 1, that doesn't matter.
To become No. 1, you need to have the qualities that she has. That is to be consistent and to last throughout a whole season.

Q. Are you a type of player who looks at the draw before the tournament starts? If so, did you look at yours? What do you think of it?
KIM CLIJSTERS: No, I don't. That's something that I definitely learned since I was younger. Because in the media people always start to talk about the future, quarterfinal, semifinal, a tough third, fourth round coming up before the tournament even starts.
I don't like to waste my energy on those kind of thoughts, because I can use all that focus on whatever match I have coming up next.
So I follow obviously other parts of the draw, see who is playing who, but I don't even think, Oh, this person might play this person in the quarterfinal, because so much can happen in a Grand Slam.

Q. Have you seen the latest Tin Tin movie, and do you think it's Belgian enough?
KIM CLIJSTERS: I haven't seen it yet. It was in the movies when we were in Brisbane last week. I wasn't able to go there yet, so that's definitely going to be something that will be on our schedule once we go back home.

Q. Are you a fan?
KIM CLIJSTERS: Yeah, I have been. Even when I was a little girl I read all the cartoon books. So, yeah, I've always been a fan.
That's a first (smiling).